Object detection for distorted images

ABSTRACT

Techniques including receiving a distorted image from a camera disposed about a vehicle, detecting, in the distorted image, corner points associated with a target object, mapping the corner points to a distortion corrected domain based on one or more camera parameters, mapping the corner points and lines between the corner points back to a distorted domain based on the camera parameters, interpolating one or more intermediate points to generate lines between the corner points in the distortion corrected domain mapping the corner points and the lines between the corner points back to a distorted domain based on the camera parameters, and adjusting a direction of travel of the vehicle based on the located target object.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to Indian Provisional Application No.201841041179, filed Oct. 31, 2018, which is hereby incorporated byreference.

BACKGROUND

Increasingly, vehicles, such as cars, robots, aircraft, etc., arebecoming increasingly automated and able to perform various activitieson their own without being directly controlled by a person. As anexample, one important activity that may be performed by an autonomousvehicle, such as an autonomous car, is automatically parking the car ina parking space.

Various sensors may be disposed on a vehicle to help enable autonomousoperation. These sensors may include cameras sensitive to a range ofelectromagnetic frequencies, including visible light, near and farinfrared, etc. These cameras may sometimes utilize lenses with someamount of intentional distortion, such as wide-angle or fisheye lenses,which can allow for a wider field of view as compared to other lenseswith less distortion.

SUMMARY

This disclosure relates to a method, the method including receiving adistorted image from a camera disposed about a vehicle, detecting, inthe distorted image, corner points associated with a target object,mapping the corner points to a distortion corrected domain based on oneor more camera parameters, interpolating one or more intermediate pointsto generate lines between the corner points in the distortion correcteddomain, mapping the corner points and the lines between the cornerpoints back to a distorted domain based on the camera parameters,locating the target object in the distorted image based on pixels withinthe lines, and adjusting a direction of travel of the vehicle based onthe located target object.

Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a non-transitoryprogram storage device including instructions stored thereon to causeone or more processors to receive a distorted image, detect, in thedistorted image, corner points associated with a parking spot, map thecorner points to a distortion corrected domain based on one or morecamera parameters, interpolate one or more intermediate points togenerate lines between the corner points in the distortion correcteddomain, map the corner points and lines between the corner points backto a distorted domain based on the camera parameters, locate the targetobject in the distorted image based on the pixels within the lines, andoutput one or more instructions for adjusting a direction of travelbased on the located target object.

Another aspect of the present disclosure relates to a vehicle capable ofdetecting a parking spot, the vehicle including one or more camerasdisposed about the vehicle, a memory, and one or more processorsoperatively coupled to the memory, and the one or more cameras, whereinthe one or more processors are configured to execute non-transitoryinstructions causing the one or more processors to receive a distortedimage from the one or more cameras, detect, in the distorted image,corner points associated with a parking spot, map the corner points to adistortion corrected domain based on a camera parameter, map the cornerpoints to a distortion corrected domain based on one or more cameraparameters, interpolate one or more intermediate points to generatelines between the corner points in the distortion corrected domain, mapthe corner points and lines between the corner points back to adistorted domain based on the camera parameters, locate the targetobject in the distorted image based on the pixels within the lines, andoutput one or more instructions for adjusting a direction of travelbased on the located target object.

It may be understood that while techniques herein are discussed in thecontext of visible light cameras, nothing in this disclosure is meant tolimit these techniques to such sensors. Rather, the techniques discussedherein are readily applicable across a broad range of sensor devices,including, non-visible light or electromagnetic sensors, includinginfrared, near infrared, or cameras capable of capturing images across awide range of electromagnetic frequencies.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a detailed description of various examples, reference will now bemade to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a distorted image, in accordance with aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 2 illustrates corner detection for a distorted image, in accordancewith aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates generating a pixel mask, in accordance with aspectsof the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates a pixel mask, in accordance with aspects of thepresent disclosure.

FIG. 5 is an image illustrating corner detection, in accordance withaspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a technique 600 for object detectionin a distorted image, in accordance with aspects of the presentdisclosure.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a computing device, inaccordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a vehicle capable of detecting a parkingspot, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some object detection routines are based on relatively distortion-freeimages, rather than, for example, fisheye distorted images. Generally,parking spots are rectilinear in shape, but seen through a fisheyedistortion, rectilinear shapes may appear to be curved or rounded. Amapping or correction algorithm may be first applied to remove thedistortion prior to object detection, but this two-step process canresult in reduced resolution and/or increased computing resourceutilization, such as increased memory access traffic. What is desirableis a technique for parking spot detection directly on the distortedimages.

Machine learning algorithms may be used to identify and classify objectsin an image. Machine learning (ML) algorithms, such as a ML objectdetector, generally have two phases, a training phase and an operatingphase. In the training phase, a large number, in the order of hundreds,if not tens or hundreds of thousands of labeled images are used to trainthe ML object detector to recognize a particular object. Once labeled,the image may be used as a part of a training process for the ML objectdetector. The labels of these labeled images are considered a groundtruth as for objects in the respective image that the ML object detectoris being trained on. As the ground truth for an image defines the factsfor the image (e.g., definitively identifying where in the image theparking spot is), objects in these labeled images are often identifiedand labeled by a person. As labeling is human performed, generating suchlabeled images is labor intensive. In certain cases, a ML objectdetector may include a one or more levels of recognizers associated withvarious weights, which can detect various aspects of a target object.Once presented with a training image, these recognizers can be used togenerate a prediction as to whether the target object is present and/orthe location of the target object. This prediction is then compared tothe label of the training image, and a difference between the predictionand ground truth, as defined by the label, is determined by a losscriteria or function. The results of this loss criteria may then be backpropagated though the levels of recognizers to adjust the variousweights associated with the recognizers. This process may then berepeated, for example over many hours, days, or weeks, for the trainingimages. In certain cases, training may be concluded based on one or morecriteria, such as accuracy of the ML object detector over a validationset of images.

Generally, cameras used in vehicles can include lenses which may producedistorted images, such as fisheye or wide-angle lenses. Generally, theselenses offer wider views as compared to other lenses and using theselenses can reduce the number of cameras needed to generate a particularview. Of note, while described in conjunction with fisheye or wide-anglelenses, it may be understood that techniques addressed in thisdisclosure may be adapted for other types of lenses which may inducedistortion, for example, magnifying, or barrel distortion lenses. As anexample, a vehicle may use a single 180 degree fisheye lens to cover anentire side of the vehicle. Images generated using fisheye lensesfurther complicate labelling. For example, as shown in FIG. 1illustrating a distorted image 100, a straight parking line 102 appearsas a curved line in fisheye images, as compared to reference line 104.Hand-tracing or outlining such curved lines greatly magnifies thedifficulty for labelling. It is possible to correct for the fisheye lensdistortion prior to labelling, but such corrections can introduceartifacts and reduce an effective resolution of the images. Similarly,in the operating phase, conventional object detection, such as singleshot detection (SSD) or you only look once (YOLO) detection, generallyoperate using rectangular bounding or anchor boxes, such as bounding box106. However, in the fisheye domain, these rectangular boxes generallyare not precise enough to exactly determine boundaries of a parkingspot. While described in the context of a parking spot, it may beunderstood that techniques discussed herein may be applied to detectionof other rectilinear target objects in distorted images, such as signs,buildings, markings, etc.

FIG. 2 illustrates corner detection for a distorted image 200, inaccordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Rather thanannotating an image of a parking spot by tracing or outlining borders ofthe parking spot, labeling may be performed for distorted images, in thedistorted image domain, by annotating four corner points 202A-202D of aparking spot. By labeling just the four corner points 202A-202D of aparking space, the amount of work for a trainer may be reduced, ascompared to tracing the sides of the parking space. In certain cases,corner points 202A-202D may be annotated in a consistent orderconsistent with an entry point of a parking spot. For example, labelingmay be performed such that the first corner point represents the leftcorner of the parking spot from the point of view of a vehiclepositioned to enter the parking spot. Other corner points may be labeledin an anti-clockwise fashion. It may be understood that while othercorner points are labelled in an anti-clockwise fashion in thisembodiment, the exact order in which the labels are identified can varyin other embodiments. For example, corner points may be labeled in aclockwise fashion, or star pattern. Consistency in the ordering andidentifying which points define entry points to a parking spot asbetween images helps increase learning efficacy. In FIG. 2, for example,the corner point 202A may be labeled first, followed by corner points202B, 202C, and 202D, in order. The image may be labelled with at leastthe four corner points 202A-202D locations.

In certain cases, additional intermediate points may also be annotated.These intermediate points may be placed at regular intervals along theboundary of the parking spot. An equal number of intermediate points maybe used for each side. For example, a trainer may annotate two pointsalong each side of the parking spot between each pair of corner points,such as shown with respect to intermediate points 204.

In certain cases, a pixel mask for pixel wise detection may be generatedbased on the identified corner points 202A-202D. This pixel maskidentifies, on a pixel-by-pixel basis, which pixels correlate with alocation inside the parking spot, and which pixels do not. The pixelmask may be generated, in certain cases, after the four corner points202A-202D of the parking spot have been annotated. These four cornerpoints 202A-202D may be converted into a distortion corrected imagedomain, for example based upon a set of intrinsic properties of thelens. Generally, the set of intrinsic properties of the lens describethe distortion produced by the lens. The intrinsic properties can beused to correct the distorted image by mapping the four corner points202A-202D from the distorted image domain to the corrected image domain,and back.

FIG. 3 is the distorted image 200 of FIG. 2 converted to the correctedimage domain 300, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.For clarity image 300 has been converted to the corrected image domain.In certain cases, the four corner points 302A-302D may be converted tothe corrected image domain without converting the entire image. Afterconverting the four corner points 202A-202D of FIG. 2 into the correctedimage domain corner points 302A-302D, lines 304 may be drawn linking thefour corner points 302A-302D. By converting the image and corner pointsinto the corrected image domain, lines may be drawn based on just thecorner points without having to take into account distortion effectsfrom the lens. Where intermediate points 306 are available, the lines304 may be drawn based on the corner points 302A-302D and theintermediate points 306 (corresponding to intermediate points 204 ofFIG. 2). The four corner points 302A-302D, and intermediate points 306,if any, may then be converted back into the distorted image domain. Thisconversion back into the distorted image domain can cancel artifactsthat may have been introduced by the conversion to the corrected imagedomain. The image may be labelled with the four corner points 302A-302Dlocations.

A pixel wise mask may be generated based on the labeled image. Forexample, from the intermediate points 306 and four corner points302A-302D of FIG. 3, a pixel wise mask 402, as shown in image 400 ofFIG. 4, may be generated by considering the pixels within the lines 304of FIG. 3 as being within a parking spot. That is, the lines may beconsidered as the outer border or boundary of the parking spot. Incertain cases, the image may also be labeled with the generated pixelwise mask. Pixel wise masks may be useful, for example, for accuratelyidentifying portions of irregularly shaped parking spots.

Generally, labelled images are used to train a ML object recognitionsystem to properly detect a corresponding object during a trainingphase. For example, as indicated previously, ML object detectiontechniques, such as SSD or YOLO, can be used to detect parking spots.These techniques generally utilize pre-defined anchor boxes into whichan object can be fitted. However, using anchor boxes with distortedimages, such as those produced by a fisheye lens, tends to be difficultdue to issues with mapping anchor boxes to the distorted images. Forexample, existing ML object detection techniques may use a predefinedset of rectangular anchor box shapes. Images may be divided in a gridwith multiple cells, and each cell analyzed by a set of detectorscorresponding with a set of rectangular anchor box shapes to generate aconfidence score for each possible rectangular anchor box shape.However, such rectangular shapes may not be compatible with distortedimages. In accordance with certain aspects of the present disclosure, aML object detection system may be trained to detect a parking spot basedon corner points of the parking spot. For example, a ML parking spotdetector may be trained based upon the labeled images as discussed abovein conjunction with FIG. 2.

FIG. 5 is an image 500 illustrating corner detection, in accordance withaspects of the present disclosure. As shown in image 500, a ML parkingspot detector may predict corner points 502A-502D for an image receivedfrom a fisheye lens. As an example, the ML parking spot detector maygenerate a confidence score for a set of anchor box shapes for cornerpoints 502A-502D. The set of anchor box shapes may be filtered based onthe generated confidence scores, for example, based on a thresholdconfidence score. The remaining anchor boxes may be compared to removeduplicates and overlapping anchor boxes to generate the prediction ofthe corner points 502A-502D. During training, these anchor box shapesmay be compared against a ground truth virtual bounding box 504.

Training the ML parking spot detector may be performed based on theground truth virtual bounding box 504. For example, a training image maybe labelled with the ground truth locations of corner points 502A-502Dfor parking spots in the image. It may be understood that a trainingimage may be labeled with corner points corresponding to multipleparking spots, but for clarity in this example, a single parking spot isshown. The ground truth virtual bounding box 504 is defined based on thecorner points 502A-502D in the training image. The ground truth virtualbounding box 504 may be drawn around the corner points 502A-502D. Theground truth virtual bounding box 504 may be based on a minimumrectangle area having sides parallel to the image plane and containingthe corner points 502A-502D in the sides of the ground truth virtualbounding box 504. The ground truth virtual bounding box 504 may bedefined by x and y coordinates of the top-left (TL) corner of the groundtruth virtual bounding box 504, along with a width (W) and height (H) ofthe ground truth virtual bounding box 504. A corresponding predictionvector for the corner points 502A-502D may be defined as [502A_x,502A_y, 502B_x, 502B_y, 502C_x, 502C_y, 502D_x, 502D_y, TL_x, TL_y, W,H], where x and y are x and y coordinates. That is, 502A_x representsthe x coordinates of corner point 502A, 502A_y represents the ycoordinates of corner point 502A, and so forth for corner points502B-503D, TL_x representing the x coordinate of the top-left corner ofthe ground truth virtual bounding box 504, and TL_y representing the ycoordinate of the top-left corner of the ground truth virtual boundingbox 504. In certain cases, TL_x, TL_y, W, H information may be usedduring training, for example, for matching anchor boxes, and thisinformation may be omitted after the ML parking spot detector has beentrained.

During training, the ML object detector, such as a corner pointdetector, may locate a corner point and generate confidence scores for aset of anchor box shapes for the located corner point. The anchor boxshapes may be compared to the ground truth virtual bounding box 504 todetermine which anchor box shapes correspond with the ground truthvirtual bounding box 504. Correspondence may be based on how accuratelya given anchor box overlaps with the ground truth virtual bounding box.In certain cases, an intersection over union (IOU) may be calculated.The IOU determines an amount of overlap between regions of a givenanchor box and the ground truth virtual bounding box. The IOU may bedetermined by dividing the overlapping regions by the total regions ofground truth virtual bounding box. In certain cases, a list of anchorboxes with an IOU of more than a threshold, such as 0.5, may bedetermined as corresponding, and a loss criteria, or function, may becalculated for the corresponding anchor boxes. The corner points may beused to determine the loss criteria. In certain cases, the TL_x, TL_y,W, H information may be omitted for determining loss criteria. The losscriteria may be used to indicate to a ML object detector in training howaccurately the ML object detector has detected a target object. The losscriteria may also be used to determine correction weights to be appliedto various layers of the ML object detector for back propagation.

In certain cases, the loss criteria may be defined to prioritizeestimating corner point locations over estimating the virtual boundingbox parameters. For example, the loss criteria may be defined asloss=Σ_(i=1) ¹²w_(i)*(Pv[i]−Gv[i])², where the virtual box parametersare defined by w_(i)=k1, ∈i=[1, 4], the corner point parameters aredefined by w_(i)=k2, ∈i=[5, 12], where k1+k2=1, Pv is the predictionvector, Gv is the ground truth vector based on the label, and 0<k1<k2<1.

In accordance with aspects of the present disclosure, the detectedcorner points may be extended to produce a pixel wise detection. Forexample, in a manner similar to that discussed in conjunction with FIG.3, once the four corner points have been identified, the four cornerpoints may be converted to the corrected image domain and lines drawnlinking the four corner points. After the lines are drawn, one or moreintermediate points may be interpolated on these lines. The intermediatepoints may be placed at regular intervals along the lines and each linemay include the same number of intermediate points. For example, twointermediate points may be placed, equally spaced on each line. The fourcorner points and intermediate points may then be converted back intothe distorted image domain and the pixel wise mask may be generated byfilling in the areas between the corner points and intermediate pointsand identifying these pixels as part of the parking spot.

In certain cases, when multiple parking spots are located closetogether, such as in a large parking lot, detected parking spots mayoverlap. Irregularly shaped pixel masks may be used to help avoidoverlapping detection of multiple parking spots in a distorted image.For example, a pixel mask may be drawn based on the detected cornerpoints for a first parking spot. A second pixel mask may be drawn basedon detected corner points for a second parking spot. The first pixelmask may be compared to the second pixel mask using a pixel based freeform intersection over union (IOU) comparison. Generally, an IOUcomparison takes the two pixel masks and determines the overlappingregions of the two pixel masks and divides the overlapping regions bythe combined regions of the two pixel masks and generating a resultingscore. In certain cases, a lower resulting score may indicate a largeroverlap between the first and second pixel masks. The resulting scoremay be compared to a threshold and scores below the threshold may besuppressed.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart illustrating a technique 600 for object detectionin a distorted image, in accordance with aspects of the presentdisclosure. As an example, the technique 600 may be performed by anautonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle to enable the vehicle to detect aparking space. At block 602, the technique begins by receiving adistorted image from a camera. For example, a distorted image may bereceived from a camera having a fisheye lens. At block 604, the methodincludes detecting, in the distorted image, corner points associatedwith a target object. For example, corner points, such as for thecorners associated with a parking space, may be detected by a ML objectdetector. At block 606, the method includes mapping the corner points toa distortion corrected domain based on one or more camera parameters.For example, a location of the corner points may be mapped from adistorted image domain to a corrected image domain based on predefinedcamera parameters. The camera parameters may be a mapping between pixelslocations in a given image domain to another image domain and may beused to correct for distortion caused by, for example, a camera and/orlens. The camera parameters, such as focal length, principal point,projection matrix, position of the camera center, etc., may be defined,for example, during a calibration routine and stored. At block 608, themethod includes drawing lines between the corner points. As an example,the corner points may include the corners of a rectilinear area andlines may be drawn as between the corners, defining the rectilineararea. At block 610, the method includes mapping the corner points andlines back to the distorted image domain based on the camera parameters.As an example, mapping a limited number of points, such as corner pointsand lines, between image domains helps reduce the amount ofcomputational resources needed as compared to converting an entireimage. At block 612, the method includes locating the target object inthe distorted image based on the pixels within the lines. For example,the lines may be considered as defining the outer edge of the parkingspace and pixels outside of this line may be considered as not a part ofthe parking space, while pixels within the line may be considered partof the parking space. The location of the parking space within the imagemay be determined based on the pixels within the line. At block 614, themethod includes adjusting a direction of travel of the vehicle based onthe located target object. For example, a map or mask indicating whichpixels are associated with the parking spot may be used by a process forsteering the vehicle into the parking spot.

As illustrated in FIG. 7, the computing device 700 includes a processingelement such as processor 705 that contains one or more hardwareprocessors, where each hardware processor may have a single or multipleprocessor cores. Examples of processors include, but are not limited to,a central processing unit (CPU) or a microprocessor. Although notillustrated in FIG. 7, the processing elements that make up processor705 may also include one or more other types of hardware processingcomponents, such as graphics processing units (GPUs), applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs), field-programmable gate arrays(FPGAs), and/or digital signal processors (DSPs). In certain cases,processor 705 may be configured to perform the tasks described inconjunction with FIG. 6. Generally, the computing device 700 may performany of the functionality described above (e.g., in conjunction withFIGS. 2-6).

FIG. 7 illustrates that memory 710 may be operatively andcommunicatively coupled to processor 705. Memory 710 may be anon-transitory computer readable storage medium configured to storevarious types of data. For example, memory 710 may include one or morevolatile devices such as random access memory (RAM). Non-volatilestorage devices 720 can include one or more disk drives, optical drives,solid-state drives (SSDs), tap drives, flash memory, electricallyprogrammable read only memory (EEPROM), and/or any other type memorydesigned to maintain data for a duration time after a power loss or shutdown operation. The non-volatile storage devices 720 may also be used tostore programs that are loaded into the RAM when such programs executed.

Software programs may be developed, encoded, and compiled in a varietyof computing languages for a variety of software platforms and/oroperating systems and subsequently loaded and executed by processor 705.In one embodiment, the compiling process of the software program maytransform program code written in a programming language to anothercomputer language such that the processor 705 is able to execute theprogramming code. For example, the compiling process of the softwareprogram may generate an executable program that provides encodedinstructions (e.g., machine code instructions) for processor 705 toaccomplish specific, non-generic, particular computing functions.

After the compiling process, the encoded instructions may then be loadedas computer executable instructions or process steps to processor 705from storage 720, from memory 710, and/or embedded within processor 705(e.g., via a cache or on-board read only memory (ROM)). Processor 705may be configured to execute the stored instructions or process steps inorder to perform instructions or process steps to transform thecomputing device into a non-generic, particular, specially programmedmachine or apparatus. Stored data, e.g., data stored by a storage 720,may be accessed by processor 705 during the execution of computerexecutable instructions or process steps to instruct one or morecomponents within the computing device 700. Storage 720 may bepartitioned or split into multiple sections that may be accessed bydifferent software programs. For example, storage 720 may include asection designated for specific purposes, such as storing programinstructions or data for updating software of the computing device 700.In one embodiment, the software to be updated includes the ROM, orfirmware, of the computing device. In certain cases, the computingdevice 700 may include multiple operating systems. For example, thecomputing device 700 may include a general-purpose operating systemwhich is utilized for normal operations. The computing device 700 mayalso include another operating system, such as a bootloader, forperforming specific tasks, such as upgrading and recovering thegeneral-purpose operating system, and allowing access to the computingdevice 700 at a level generally not available through thegeneral-purpose operating system. Both the general-purpose operatingsystem and another operating system may have access to the section ofstorage 720 designated for specific purposes.

The one or more communications interfaces may include a radiocommunications interface for interfacing with one or more radiocommunications devices. In certain cases, elements coupled to theprocessor may be included on hardware shared with the processor. Forexample, the communications interfaces 725, storage, 720, and memory 710may be included, along with other elements such as the digital radio, ina single chip or package, such as in a system on a chip (SOC). Computingdevice may also include input and/or output devices, not shown, examplesof which include sensors, cameras, human input devices, such as mouse,keyboard, touchscreen, monitors, display screen, tactile or motiongenerators, speakers, lights, etc. Processed input, for example from acamera device 730, may be output from the computing device 700 via thecommunications interfaces 725 to one or more other devices. The cameradevice 730 includes one or more camera sensors and one or more lenseswhich may produce distorted images, such as fisheye or wide-anglelenses.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a vehicle 800 capable of detecting aparking spot, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Thevehicle 800 includes a parking controller 802 and one or more cameras804A-804D disposed around the vehicle 800. The one or more cameras804A-804D are electronically coupled to the parking controller 802 andcapable of transmitting images to the parking controller 802. The one ormore cameras 804A-804D may be coupled to the parking controller 802 overany vehicle network, such as a controller area network (CAN) bus, orwireless network. The one or more cameras 804A-804D may be similar tothose discussed in conjunction with camera device 730 of FIG. 7. In thisexample, the one or more cameras 804A-804D are disposed around theperiphery of the vehicle 800, but it may be understood that the one ormore cameras 804A-804D may be located anywhere on the vehicle 800. Theparking controller 802 may be similar to computing device 700 of FIG. 7and include one or more processors, memory, storage device, andcommunications interface. In certain cases, the parking controller 802,may be integrated as a part of another chip or package, such as a SOC.

While a vehicle with an onboard driver has been described herein, otherembodiments may be implemented in vehicle in which the “driver” isremote from the vehicle, such as autonomous vehicles that may becontrolled from a remote site.

As use herein, the term “vehicle” may also be applied to other types ofdevices, such as robots, industrial devices, medical devices, etc. inwhich low cost, low power processing of images from multiple cameras toform a virtual viewpoint in real time is beneficial.

The techniques described in this disclosure may be implemented inhardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implementedin software, the software may be executed in one or more processors,such as a microprocessor, application specific integrated circuit(ASIC), field programmable gate array (FPGA), a digital signal processor(DSP), etc. The software that executes the techniques may be initiallystored in a computer-readable medium such as compact disc (CD), adiskette, a tape, a file, memory, or any other computer readable storagedevice and then loaded and executed in the processor. In some cases, thesoftware may also be sold in a computer program product, which includesthe computer-readable medium and packaging materials for thecomputer-readable medium. In some cases, the software instructions maybe distributed via removable computer readable media (e.g., floppy disk,optical disk, flash memory, universal serial bus (USB) key), via atransmission path from computer readable media on another digitalsystem, etc.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving a distorted imagefrom a camera disposed about a vehicle; detecting, in the distortedimage, corner points associated with a target object; mapping the cornerpoints to a distortion corrected domain based on one or more cameraparameters; interpolating one or more intermediate points to generatelines between the corner points in the distortion corrected domain;mapping the corner points and the lines between the corner points backto a distorted domain based on the camera parameters; locating thetarget object in the distorted image based on pixels within the lines;and adjusting a direction of travel of the vehicle based on the locatedtarget object.
 2. The method of claim 1, the method further comprising:mapping the one or more intermediate points back to the distorted domainbased on the camera parameters; and determining the pixels within thelines based on the corner points and intermediate points.
 3. The methodof claim 1, wherein the distorted image comprises a fisheye distortedimage.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the target object comprises aparking spot.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the distorted image is atraining image and the method further comprising: determining a losscriteria between the detected corner points and corner points associatedwith the training image; and adjusting one or more weights associatedwith corner point detectors based on the loss criteria.
 6. The method ofclaim 5, further comprising: drawing a virtual bounding box based on thecorner points; and comparing the virtual bounding box with a groundtruth virtual bounding box associated with the training image.
 7. Themethod of claim 6, wherein the one or more weights are adjusted based onthe loss criteria and the comparison between the virtual bounding boxand the ground truth virtual bounding box and wherein the loss criteriais prioritized above a result of the comparison between the virtualbounding box with the ground truth virtual bounding box when adjustingthe one or more weights associated with the corner point detectors. 8.The method of claim 7, wherein comparing the pixels is based on a pixelbased intersection over union comparison.
 9. A non-transitory programstorage device comprising instructions stored thereon to cause one ormore processors to: receive a distorted image; detect, in the distortedimage, corner points associated with a target object; map the cornerpoints to a distortion corrected domain based on one or more cameraparameters; interpolate one or more intermediate points to generatelines between the corner points in the distortion corrected domain; mapthe corner points and lines between the corner points back to adistorted domain based on the camera parameters; locate the targetobject in the distorted image based on pixels within the lines; andoutput one or more instructions for adjusting a direction of travelbased on the located target object.
 10. The non-transitory programstorage device of claim 9, wherein the stored instructions further causeone or more processors to: map the one or more intermediate points backto the distorted domain based on the camera parameters; and determinethe pixels within the lines are further based on the corner points andintermediate points.
 11. The non-transitory program storage device ofclaim 9, wherein the distorted image comprises a fisheye distortedimage.
 12. The non-transitory program storage device of claim 9, whereinthe target object comprises a parking spot.
 13. The non-transitoryprogram storage device of claim 9, wherein the image is a trainingimage, and wherein the stored instructions further cause one or moreprocessors to: determine a loss criteria between the detected cornerpoints and corner points associated with the training image; and adjustone or more weights associated with corner point detectors based on theloss criteria.
 14. The non-transitory program storage device of claim13, wherein the stored instructions further cause one or more processorsto: draw a virtual bounding box based on the corner points; and comparethe virtual bounding box with a ground truth virtual bounding boxassociated with the training image.
 15. The non-transitory programstorage device of claim 14, wherein the one or more weights are adjustedbased on the loss criteria and the comparison between the virtualbounding box and the ground truth virtual bounding box and wherein theloss criteria is prioritized above a result of the comparison betweenthe virtual bounding box with the ground truth virtual bounding box whenadjusting the one or more weights associated with the corner pointdetectors.
 16. A vehicle capable of detecting a parking spot, thevehicle comprising: one or more cameras disposed about the vehicle; amemory; and one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory,and the one or more cameras, wherein the one or more processors areconfigured to execute non-transitory instructions causing the one ormore processors to: receive a distorted image from the one or morecameras; detect, in the distorted image, corner points associated with atarget object; map the corner points to a distortion corrected domainbased on one or more camera parameters; interpolate one or moreintermediate points to generate lines between the corner points in thedistortion corrected domain; map the corner points and lines between thecorner points back to a distorted domain based on the camera parameters;locate the target object in the distorted image based on pixels withinthe lines; and adjust a direction of travel of the vehicle based on thelocated target object.
 17. The vehicle of claim 16, wherein thenon-transitory instructions further cause one or more processors to: mapthe one or more intermediate points back to the distorted domain basedon the camera parameters; and determine the pixels within the lines arefurther based on the corner points and intermediate points.
 18. Thevehicle of claim 16, wherein the distorted image comprises a fisheyedistorted image.
 19. The vehicle of claim 16, wherein the target objectcomprises a parking spot.
 20. The vehicle of claim 16, wherein the imageis a training image and wherein the non-transitory instructions furthercause one or more processors to: determine a loss criteria between thedetected corner points and corner points associated with the trainingimage; and adjust one or more weights associated with corner pointdetectors based on the loss criteria.